The Improvisational Language of Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen
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THE IMPROVISATIONAL LANGUAGE OF NIELS-HENNING ØRSTED PEDERSEN: A PERFORMANCE STUDY Craig Butterfield, B.M., M.M. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS December 2008 APPROVED: Jeff Bradetich, Major Professor Lynn Seaton, Minor Professor Joseph Klein, Committee Member Terri Sundberg, Chair of the Division of Instrumental Studies Graham Phipps, Director of Graduate Studies in the College of Music James C. Scott, Dean of the College of Music Sandra L. Terrell, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies Butterfield, Craig. The improvisational language of Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen: A performance study. Doctor of Musical Arts (Performance), December 2008, 69 pp., 103 musical illustrations, works cited, 20 titles. Thirteen original transcriptions and subsequent analysis of improvised solos performed by Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. The transcriptions are analyzed in three categories: harmonic vocabulary, technical devices, and motivic use. Pervasive harmonic and melodic themes are presented and compared with phrases from improvisers such as Sonny Rollins and Charlie Parker, as well as compositions by J.S. Bach and Johannes Brahms. Observations from the transcriptions regarding performance practice and techniques unique to Pedersen as well as the influence of the physical characteristics of the double bass are discussed. Pedersen’s use of motivic development within a single solo is analyzed. Copyright 2008 by Craig Butterfield ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapters 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................1 2. ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPTIONS ...........................................................................4 All the Things You Are Beautiful Love Blues for Perla Falling in Love with Love Have You Met Miss Jones I Fall in Love too Easily I Love You Lover Man Oleo Someday My Prince Will Come Stella by Starlight There Is No Greater Love You Look Good to Me 3. TRANSCRIPTION ANALYSIS...........................................................................37 Harmonic Analysis Technical Devices Motivic Use REFERENCE LIST .......................................................................................................................68 iii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen was one of the most influential jazz bassists in the history of the art form. In addition to possessing an unmatched technical facility on the instrument,1 he absorbed and utilized the be-bop language, epitomized by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, perhaps more eloquently than any other double bassist. Pedersen collaborated with many of the leading jazz artists, including Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, Bud Powell, Bill Evans, Chet Baker, Kenny Drew, Michel Petrucciani, and Tete Montoliu. Pedersen was born in 1946 in Osted, Denmark. After briefly studying piano, Pedersen switched to double bass and began his professional career at the age of 14. At the age of 17, Pedersen had become the house bassist at the Club Montmartre in Copenhagen.2 He was the bassist of choice for jazz artists touring Europe and formed long-lasting musical relationships with Kenny Drew and Oscar Peterson, replacing Ray Brown as Peterson’s bassist in the 1970s. Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen preferred to remain in his native Denmark throughout his life, and combined be-bop and post-bop genres with Norwegian folk melodies in his own compositions and recordings as a leader. There have not been any comprehensive studies done regarding his unique vocabulary and performance technique to date. In-depth analyses of a particular artist are invaluable pedagogical tools regardless of the genre, including Samuel Applebaum’s Way They Play series and David Baker’s Giants of Jazz series. Analysis of multiple performances by Pedersen should be beneficial to all jazz musicians. 1 John Goldsby, The Jazz Bass Book (San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2002), 142. 2 Ibid.142. 1 Jazz is above all an aural tradition, and recordings are the primary source of research for jazz artists. Great improvisers throughout the history of jazz have thoroughly digested the styles and traditions of previous generations before adding their own significant contributions. The method that these musicians use to absorb the history of the language is known as “transcribing.” Classic solos from master improvisers are learned by rote or written out and memorized. Charlie Parker was said to have memorized all of Lester Young’s recorded solos. Many volumes have been published filled with nothing but the transcribed solos of artists such as John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, and Paul Chambers. Transcriptions teach us not only the elements of the jazz language—the “vocabulary”—but also the syntax. A particular idiomatic phrase may recur in hundreds of solos, but it is the context in which that phrase is used and how it is connected to the surrounding ideas that is unique and individual to each improviser. Therefore it is not only the individuality of the melodic ideas—there are after all only 12 notes—but the way in which these individual phrases are used which can provide the careful student great insight into the artistic palette of an improviser. Most published transcription books offer little in the way of analysis of their content. While these books are useful to students of the jazz language, their greatest benefit perhaps is to those who transcribed them. The process of transcribing is an important step, but the most critical processes are analysis and integration of completed transcriptions. Most musicians working with pure transcription books memorize a solo or two and therefore have increased their vocabulary over that particular tune or one with very similar harmony in the same key. If a solo is broken down, analyzed, and thoroughly integrated, the musician can apply the new vocabulary in a much wider range of situations because the motive is understood at a much deeper harmonic 2 level. An example of such an analytical transcription book is noted jazz educator David Baker’s publication The Jazz Style of Sonny Rollins.3 In this work Baker transcribes and notates the solos clearly and accurately, but more importantly he dissects each solo and cites motivic development, specific harmonic vocabulary, and chord/scale relationships that all work together to define the overall style of Sonny Rollins. Baker’s approach will serve as a model and a guide for the exploration of the specific harmonic language of Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. Thirteen original transcriptions of recorded solos performed by Pedersen are included in their entirety in chapter 2. These solos are analyzed in chapter 3, which is organized into three sections—harmonic vocabulary, technical devices, and motivic use. Excerpts from the original transcriptions, as well as works from other composers and improvisers, are included in the body of the analysis chapter for clarity. 3 David Baker, The Jazz Style of Sonny Rollins (Miami: Warner Bros. Publications, 1980). 3 CHAPTER 2 ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPTIONS Thirteen original transcriptions of improvisations recorded by Pedersen are included in this chapter, presented in alphabetical order by song title. A complete list of album titles, dates, and record labels is included in the reference list at the end of this document. Double bass jazz solos are difficult to transcribe due to the low frequencies and frequently inadequate recording techniques used to capture the performance. In addition, Pedersen’s style is particularly painstaking to notate. Pedersen makes extensive use of “ghosted” notes, dampened open strings, percussive right hand articulations, and glissandos. Despite these difficulties, great care was taken to notate every sound as accurately as notation allows. The same devices that create challenges in transcription often reveal fascinating insights into Pedersen’s unique technical approach to the double bass, as well as critical information regarding Pedersen’s left and right hand fingerings. This information is essential in obtaining an accurate representation of not only Pedersen’s improvisational language but how this language was and can be spoken on the double bass. These topics will be explored further in chapter 3 in the section regarding technical devices. Every attempt was made to accurately represent the chord changes being used in each performance. Every jazz musician has their own preferred chord changes over a given jazz standard. Harmonic analysis is facilitated by accurately representing the harmony that the musician is improvising over. For example, in “Blues for Perla,” Pedersen repeatedly implies a standard “turn-around” chord progression in the last four measures of the form while accompanying Tete Montoliu, yet occasionally drifts outside the standard changes during his 4 own improvisation. It is a subtle yet important distinction to note that this implies Pedersen is playing “outside” the standard chord changes, rather than “inside” a modified set of chord changes agreed upon by the musicians beforehand. Two important considerations informed the spelling of individual notes within the transcriptions—the “key of the moment” as well as the standard that sharped notes resolve upward and flatted notes resolve downward.4 It is a regrettable function of notation programs that important decisions regarding note spelling are frequently incorrectly made by the software, resulting in music that is difficult to read. For example,